Rounding out this year’s salute to Tchaikovsky’s three great ballets, Texas Ballet Theater begins its annual performances of The Nutcracker Friday in Bass Performance Hall. The company presented Swan Lake in May and Sleeping Beauty in October, the latter complete with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in the pit after a five-year absence. Budget constraints rule out live music this time, so it’s back to recorded sound for the fantasy love story between a girl and a nutcracker that comes to life
This is the spectacular production unveiled by the company two years ago. A gift from the now-shuttered Ballet Florida of West Palm Beach to TBT artistic director Ben Stevenson, the ballet features sequences of flying angels, a huge brass sleigh, and Arabian and Chinese dances with dancers who sail through the air.
In true repertory style, all of TBT’s principal dancers –– Carl Coomer, Jiyan Dai, Carolyn Judson, Betsy McBride, and Leticia Oliveira –– will alternate roles during the run. In addition to professional dancers, nearly 140 students from the company’s ballet schools in Fort Worth and Dallas will participate.
The company’s uproarious pop-culture satire The Nutty Nutcracker is scheduled for Friday, Dec. 19. — Leonard Eureka
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Texas Ballet Theater’s The Nutcracker is Dec 12-27 at Bass Performance Hall, 555 Commerce St, FW. Tickets are $20-125.
Call 877-828-9200.
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